“this is me trying”

“this is me trying” (Track 9 on “Folklore”): First of all, how dare Taylor Swift for hurting my feelings like this. “Folklore” was released at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and every song had its own melancholy tone to it, but “this is me trying” (TIMT) had me sadder than I’d ever been. Swift uses a rhythmic beat that I love underneath lyrics that felt like a shot to the heart, beautifully heartbreaking and spinning the tale of someone who’s attempting to heal from whatever it is they need to heal from. There’s a lot of ways that this song could be taken, which I think is incredible and one of the reasons why Swift can reach such a wide fanbase, and this is one of my favorite songs because of how comfortingly sad it is and its lyricism is one of Swift’s strongest.